Kill Bill: Vol. 2

Should it have been released as two films or
one as originally planned? That's the question
which will forever dog Quentin Tarantino's "Kill
Bill" duology, as schizophrenic a pair of
supposedly complementary pictures as have
ever been produced. The sad part is that
public reaction is likely to be just as
schizophrenic, divided between Quentin
die-hards happy to see him return to his
hipster, dialogue-driven roots and fans of the
first film's '70s cult cinema pastiche, most of
which is severely watered down in volume
two.

The new picture continues the bloody saga of
Uma Thurman's ex-assassin and her
revenge-driven odyssey to take out her
treacherous former comrades and, ultimately,
the boss of them all, her one-time lover and
father of the child she falsely believes
dead...Bill (David Carradine). Having disposed
of Vivica A. Fox and Lucy Liu in the previous
picture, she has only Michael Madsen, Daryl
Hannah and Carradine still standing in the
way of ultimate satisfaction. To that extent, the
audience knows precisely where the movie is
going. What sustains interest along the way
are the flashback interludes which fill in the
blanks so smartly sewn into the seams of
volume one. The nature of Bill's relationship to
Thurman's "Bride" character, how and why
she fled the so-called Deadly Viper
Assassination Squad (DiVAS), how Hannah's
character lost her right eye, Madsen's
relationship to Bill and assorted other
tidbits--some more interesting than
others--are seeded at strategic intervals. But
because so much of the film is preoccupied
with connecting the dots which the first film
sprayed about like bloody droplets, "Kill
Bill--Vol. 2" becomes laboriously dense. At
136 minutes, it's nearly a half-hour longer than
its predecessor and not nearly as
action-packed. Add to that lots of prolonged
dialogue and one has a movie that, in spirit,
begins to more closely resemble "Pulp
Fiction" than "Kill Bill--Vol. 1."

Judging the two as separate
movies, however,
is really somewhat unfair since it's clear in
watching them that they probably never should
have been separated in the first place. If this
had been released as a single four-hour
revenge epic, with the two halves split at an
intermission in the fashion of '60s "road
show" pictures, the synchronicity might have
worked. Certainly, the post-intermission
portions of films like "Lawrence of Arabia," "My
Fair Lady" and "Ben-Hur" can scarcely be
considered stand-alone films. But creating a
single "Kill Bill" picture--as Quentin claims he
will yet do--still presents problems. Traditional
road show pictures typically operated on a
60/40 running time division around the
intermission, a proportionality that would
require extensive truncating of the second
film's thick banter. These scenes, however,
have become such a Tarantino trademark,
that even when they don't work, they're
considered something akin to sacred cows.
But in this instance, the exchanges seem less
clever than in previous efforts, as if devised
more to satisfy fan expectations than serve the
story. Too often the voice seems exclusively
Quentin's, venting his unique and peculiar
worldview through a variety of interchangeable
characters.

When not bogged down in
chatter, the film
does show signs of the energy that made
volume one so mercurial. Where the first film
wallowed in Japanese film genres, volume
two is seeped with the feel and flourish of
Italian spaghetti westerns, at one point
detouring into a fabulous flashback homage
to '60s-era Shaw Brothers kung fu films
featuring Shaw legend Gordon Liu (who
appeared briefly in volume one as the head of
the Crazy 88 assassin squad) as an
archetypal kung fu master of the "White Lotus"
variety
. Despite the overall unevenness, some
moments manifest an inspired willingness to
stretch the accepted limits of cinema,
extending the envelope of what can't and
shouldn't be done to exhilarating new
extremes. But what the first film engineered so
seamlessly and with such vigor, volume two
delivers in almost haphazard fashion, too
often clumsily integrating disparate
fragments--like a strange nod to Italian "giallo"
horror cinema--that don't seem to fit at all.

In the end, the real saving grace of "Kill
Bill--Vol. 2" is the presence of David
Carradine. It is, in fact, more a presence than
a performance--a captivating, charismatic
locus at the center of a film that seems
constantly in need of grounding. Whether or
not he will be able to ride the part to an Oscar
nomination like previous Tarantino cult
"resurrectees" John Travolta, Robert Forster
and Pam Grier is anyone's guess, though
history is definitely on his side.

Inevitably, "Kill Bill--Vol. 2" looks to follow the
pattern of its forebear, inspiring reverence in
some, revulsion in others, though not
necessarily among the same groups. But
good or bad, as one film or two, the "Kill Bill"
saga does give audiences something wholly
unique: a rare, unfiltered glimpse into the
mad, brilliant chaos of Tarantino's feverish
imagination. It may not be for all tastes, but
dull it definitely is not.
Starring Uma Thurman, David
Carradine,
Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, Gordon Liu
and Michael Parks. Directed and written by
Quentin Tarantino. Produced by Lawrence
Bender. A Miramax release. Action. Rated R
for violence, language and brief drug use.
Running time: 136 min